Herbs

So far today I have spent time weeding out the small chive and onion raised bed right outside the from door, harvested some of both items and transplanted some of the herbs.

I guess I will start with the onions…they are green onions. To harvest them, I just take a sharp knife or a pair of scissors and snip the tops off. I then bring them inside and wash them up with cold water. I shake the water off and then snip or chop them into pieces. After that, I pack them into either a food saver bag or a canning jar. Once they are packed, into the freezer they go. For ease of use, I prefer the canning jar. And yes, I do put them in the freezer. If I want green onions, I just twist the top off, shake a few out and add to whatever I am cooking. If you thaw them prior to use, they will lose a little bit of the flavor.

For the chives, I snipped about half of the plants off. After cleaning them up and setting the flowers aside, I start packaging them. Some of them get chopped in the food processor and then froze. Others just get cut into three inch long strips and the remainder I dice. All of these go into the food saver bags in portion sized packages. When I need them, I pull out what I need and use them. You can air dry these too but I prefer the strong flavor that I associate with fresh chives, so I freeze them. You can also chop them up fine and freeze them in an ice cube tray, removing them once they are solid and storing them in a ziplock bag or container.

Now, back to the chive flowers. I read online last night about this guy that takes his flowers and soaks them in vinegar to use for salad dressing. It sounded really interesting so I stole his recipe…..

Take 10-15 flowers for each 1/2 cup of white vinegar. He recommended white wine varieties but I don’t care for them, so plain ol’ distilled it is! And besides…it’s what I had available! I trimmed and cleaned about 30 flowers for every pint (oh yes…there are those mason jars!). After stuffing the flowers into the pint jar, I covered them with vinegar, place on the seal and set them on my porch railing.

Why my porch railing? The key to this recipe is the sun. The natural sunlight will brew the cocktail much like sun tea! You can leave the mixture for up to two weeks. The longer it “brews” the richer the flavor. As you can see in the photo below, some of the pinkish color is already starting to blend into mine…and it’s been about two hours!

First stage of chive vinegar

After completing my chives, onions and vinegar brew, I decided it was time to start transplanting some of my herbs that I plan on keeping inside for every day use. I designed a little basket with some rosemary and majorium, used old pots for mint and rosemary and then mason jars (I think I just have a thing for clear glass!) with one each of sage, oregano and basil. My house smells so good right now…it makes me want to disrupt the leaves every time the wind blows so it stays like this!!!

The array of herbs

Now I need to get off my butt and back outside so that I can start building my new herb garden for the dill, the rest of the basil, oregano, and sage along with the parsley. I found an awesome idea on Pinterest that I have got to make…especially considering all of these shale stones we have around here. I will update with photos once it is complete. But again…if I don’t get moving, I won’t get it started!